DR. VINCENT (CENSU) TABONE: PRESIDENT OF MALTA (1989 - 1994)
Dr. Censu Tabone, M.D., D.O. (Oxon),
D.O.M.S. (Lond), D.M.J., F.R.C.S. (Edin), F.I.C.S., K.U.O.M.,
LL.D. (Hon Causa); was born in Victoria, Gozo on 30th March
1913 and was educated at St. Aloysius College and the
University of Malta where he graduated as a Pharmacist in 1933
and as a Doctor of Medicine in 1937. On the 23rd November 1943
he married Maria Wirth and has three sons and five daughters.
During World War II he joined the Royal Malta Artillery and
served as a regimental Medical Officer, as a general duty
officer and later as a trainee ophthalmic specialist at the
Military Hospital, Mtarfa. In 1946 he proceeded to the United
Kingdom for further training in ophthalmology and in the same
year obtained a Diploma in Ophthalmology of the University of
Oxford. Later he obtained a Diploma in Ophthalmic Medicine and
Surgery of the Conjoint Board of the Royal College of Surgeons
of England.
He returned to Malta in 1947 and since then has been
engaged in ophthalmic practice and has held senior posts in
various hospitals. In 1945 he was entrusted with the
anti-trachoma campaign in Gozo, with the result that in due
course the disease was practically eliminated from the Island.
This campaign was in many ways a pioneer project as were those
of the World Health Organisation which he helped launch in
many countries, notably in Taiwan, Indonesia and Iraq. He was
elected Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
in 1949. From 1956 he served as a member of the International
Panel of Trachoma Experts of WHO and was a consultant with
this Organisation for many years.
In 1954 he founded the Medical Officers Union, now the
Medical Association (M.A.M.) and for many years was its
president. In 1953 he obtained a Diploma in medical
Jurisprudence of the Society of Apothecaries of London. Dr.
Tabone has also been a member of the Council of the University
of Malta, a member of the Faculty Board of Medicine from 1957
to 1960 and lecturer in Clinical Ophthalmology in the
Department of Surgery.
Dr. Tabone has been active in politics since the early
sixties and in 1961 became a member of the Nationalist Party's
(NP) Executive Committee. For ten years, from 1962 to 1972, he
was Secretary General and from 1972 to 1977 the First Deputy
Leader of the NP. In 1978 he was elected President of the
Executive Committee. He held this post up to August 1985.
Dr. Tabone contested the General Elections for the first
time in the interests of the NP in 1962. In 1966 he was
elected a Member of Parliament and became Minister of Labour,
Employment and Welfare. He was re-elected in 1971, 1976, 1981
and 1987 and the districts he represented included Msida,
St.Julians, Sliema and Gzira. He represented the Nationalist
Parliamentary Group in the Council of Europe since 1973 and
was Party Spokesman on Foreign Affairs since 1978. He was a
member of various Council of Europe Committees for several
years and rapporteur of the Political Affairs Committee, of
the Committee of Health and Social Affairs, and of the
Committee for European non-member countries of which he has
also been President. He was the Founder of the 'Akkademja
Ghall-Izvilupp ta' l-Ambjent Demokratiku' (AZAD) and was its
President from 1976 to 1988.
After the elections of May 1987, he was appointed Minister
of Foreign Affairs. In 1968, when he was then Minister of
Labour, Employment and Welfare, he made a proposal at the
United Nations in New York for the greater attention to the
ageing population of the World, which in time led to the
Vienna Action Plan on Ageing, and in 1988 the establishment of
the U.N. Institute on Ageing in Malta. In September 1988 he
made a proposal in the United Nations in New York that climate
should be considered as a common heritage of mankind. Within
three months this led to the drafting of a U.N. resolution of
Climate Change to reduce man-made actions which are at the
root of such a change.
On the 16th March, 1989, Dr. Tabone tendered his
resignation as Minister of Foreign Affairs and member of the
House of Representatives; and on the 4th April of the same
year he was elected by Parliament as the fourth President of
Malta.
Awarded testimonial by the Secretary General of the United
Nations in recognition of his dedicated service in support of
the United Nations programme on Aging.
Degree of Doctor of Laws LL.D. (Hons Causa) by the
University of Malta.
Companion of Honour of the Order of Merit (K.U.O.M.)
Special Grade of Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the
Federal Republic of Germany.
'Pro Merito' Medal from the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe.
Awarded Presidential Gold Medal of the Royal College of
Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Grand Collar of the Order of Makarios III.
Cavaliere Di Gran Croce decorato con Gran Cordone al
Merito.
M.D. (Hons. Causa) by the Beijing Medical College, China.
